L'Ange Déchu
by Rinou
Summary: ..."Perhaps the angel is not so perfect, since her wing is injured, and she began a long, slow fall? And why would the demon be so cursed? After all, he still has a heart if it can break... A demon is just a fallen angel..."


**L'Ange Déchu**

Chapter 1:

Late.

She was late. She, Bella Swan, who in her 19 years of existence had never been one minute late, despite everything that fate had to throw in her path (and not just figuratively speaking). This afternoon, it was the neighbors' ball. Who knew that a large multicolored beach ball, abandoned in the middle of a wide, empty driveway on this sunny day in May, could be the cause of such trouble? Bella had no problem accomplishing it, at least. It was the sun's presence in the middle of a sky whose blue, contrary to popular expectation, was not obscured by the nearly ever-present layer of gray clouds, which had distracted the girl. It might also be noted that she promised herself to never again attempt to search blindly through her purse for her keys while squinting up at the bright sky.

In such conditions, she apparently did not see this unavoidable ball. She couldn't help falling, her feet once again betraying her terrible balance.

One would have thought that all the time she lost was due to a broken nose, a sprained wrist or a scratch on the forehead, which would have brought her to the emergency room once again, thereby losing her precious hours. No, that would have been too simple, and destiny definitely didn't like simplicity. No. It was just because, by the most basic laws of physics, science, but especially nature, the few hours of weak sunlight during a single morning were not enough to dry the ground, much less to evaporate the only puddle on the driveway - the remains of a typical rainfall the day before in the small town of Forks. But to get back to the main subject: it was in a slow, torturous motion that she saw the worksheet she had so conscientiously made during the lunch of this same day flying our of her open bag and throw itself straight into the water, as if its existence depended on it. Suffice to say that the amount of time she would lose redoing it would be proportional to the amount of ink that was dissolving before her helpless eyes, as she stood unable to stop the destruction.

Two hours, forty minutes and five seconds later (fifteen seconds, actually, once she had finished dragging her pen into its case and closing it) she was finished redoing two days' work, just as dutifully, but much more quickly, fortunately for her.

"Argh, Alice is gonna kill me..." Bella muttered as she allowed herself a few seconds of rest, dropping her head to the crook of her elbow on the hard wood of her desk. She took a deep breath before getting up suddenly, noisily pushing back the chair, and rushing into the bathroom. She briefly congratulated herself for showering and shaving in such a short time, until she found herself standing at the door to her bedroom. On her bed, sitting up as straight as a pin, was an Alice who seeemed especially on edge. At least, she imagined her friend was sitting, because the next second, Alice was already in front of her, her face only a few inches from Bella's, lowering her eyes to match gazes. After a fierce battle, looking into each other's eyes for some very long seconds, Alice sighed quite exaggeratedly, and rushed toward the room's only closet. Bella had no time to react as she was suddenly assaulted by a bundle of clothes her friend was throwing at her.

"No discussion! Put it on, and let's go! We can't lose another second!"

Faced with the scolding tone of her friend, Bella went back into the bathroom, and emerged five minutes later, dressed and made up; that is to say, her hair brushed and some black eyeliner applied to her eyes.

"You. Me. Car. Now," Alice hissed when the girl returned to the room.

"You took the words right out of my mouth..." Bella muttered as she followed her friend downstairs. Grabbing her purse on the way, she locked the door before getting into the waiting car. Bella didn't even try to question her friend about the practicality of taking the yellow Porsche to Seattle and leaving it in a parking lot for several hours, because she knew it was useless. No one could prevent Alice from using her car, whatever the occasion.

The door was barely closed before the wheels screeched on the pavement, muffling the loud slam due to the excess of force Bella had used to angrily close the door. She took a deep breath, and once her seat belt was fastened, turned to her friend.

"Alice, would you care to explain to me why you chose this outfit?"

"What?" she answered innocently, a sly smile on her lips. "It was the first thing I found in your closet; you know we were in a hurry... And you must admit, it suits you, you know? Exactly your style. You're gonna break some hearts tonight, Isabella Swan!" Alice teased. "And don't you try to distract me!" she added in a harsher tone.

"Humpf," was the only answer she could get from Bella. It must be said that since the very beginning, that is to say a little less than a week, she had expressed numerous concerns about this idea. She could only come back to Forks for a week after months of laborious studies in Seattle, before her final exams, to make the most of her well-deserved holidays and to see Charlie again. So to do the round trip to Seattle for just an evening and a night, for something she wasn't familiar with and about which she hadn't heard many good things... it wasn't exactly comforting to her.

"Anyway, how's your sister doing?" Bella cut the overbearing silence by a sure means: talking to Alice.

For she knew that once a conversation was launched, you could not stop Mary Alice Brandon. One sure topic was her family, who also lived in Forks. Surprisingly, it wasn't in this quiet little town on the west coast of Washington state that the two girls had met, but in Seattle, at university. Bella had only lived in Forks for two years, and despite the small size of the town, she'd never had the opportunity to meet Alice, since the latter had been home-schooled, and had never set foot in Forks High School. So it was a clumsy Bella, or rather her tray, piled high with things other than an apple or a bottle of water, that crashed into the girl, in the middle of the cafeteria of Seattle University. From this explosive encounter, a strong friendship was built quickly between the two girls, although they did not share the same subjects. They spent all their afternoons and weekends together, and often found themselves in Forks for the holidays.

When she was sure the conversation was started, Bella took her book and pen out of her bag and went back to work, taking care to answer, although briefly, the few questions posed by her friend. Faster than she thought (Alice's trademark tendency for speed might have had something to do with it), she recognized the landscape that characterized Seattle.

"Do you really have that much work? It's been nearly an hour and a half that you've been working on those sheets... Only you could work during the holidays, especially before an evening like the one that awaits us..." Alice's voice suddenly interrupted her thoughts.

"I hardly have a choice, or I'll be late handing in my work..." the girl replied absently, the cap of her pen between her teeth. "And since I lost the afternoon redoing what I had already done..." Too absently.

The car stopped suddenly in the middle of the street, as Alice slammed on the brakes, and Bella thanked any superior force that was watching over the Earth, whatever it may be called, for the emptiness of said street, a rarity for such a city, as she didn't dare imagine the havoc it would have been. She could almost see the headlines it would have made. '40 people crushed in a deadly pileup.' Ridiculous, right? Well, she _was_ working on some literature exercises for this type of thing!

"Don't you dare tell me that you almost made us miss the concert of our lives for... for work?" The disbelief in Alice's voice pulled Bella from her never-ending train of thoughts, and she answered quickly.

"Then I won't tell you...?" She grimaced as she heard the wheels squealing once again, indicating that an angry Alice had resumed driving. "I'm sorry," she justified herself dramatically, "but if the sun, that beach ball and that puddle had not conspired against my worksheets, I wouldn't have had to redo them..." The end of her sentence was only a grumble, as the laughter of her friend angered Bella. "And you know very well about my thoughts on this whole thing!"

"Oh, please, Bella, not with me... You can't _not_ be excited, impressed, impatient, happy, anxious, incredulous, euphoric, and excited to see them! Oh no, scratch that, I already said 'excited'..."

Bella couldn't tell if her friend was rambling or not, and managed not to cling to her seat seeing her friend's wild gestures (only because of her endless faith in Alice's great abilities to drive in any circumstances).

"I'm not."

"How can you say such things, Isabella?" Alice was clearly indignant. "Have you not seen pictures of the group, or listened to any of their song? Especially the bassist, Jasper. You know, the tall blond one..."

Once again, Bella had the unpleasant experience of interrupting her friend's thinking-aloud.

"No." _I had no time to_, she thought to herself, but couldn't say so. She probably would have praised the driver's abilities for not crushing the car once again, if she wasn't in such a difficult position.

"What?" Alice screamed, and Bella resolved to herself to have a minute of mourning for the loss of her eardrums, soon interrupted as the killer acted again. "But Bella, really, we're talking about the Knights of Night, not any starlet or brainless talent!" Unfortunately for Bella, her ears were apparently not quite dead enough to be unaffected by yet another speech about this so-called famous band. "This is the group of the decade, no, the century! You'll see, they will be adored by the whole word! You'll love them, they're geniuses! Their presence, their lyrics, their music…"

"It's just noise..." Bella mumbled. Not low enough.

"Oh no, just don't, Isabella, not with me! I know you're more open-minded and curious than that!" Alice then refocused on the road, taking a right turn along a narrower street. "'It's just noise'... Seriously..." she repeated. "You'll see that it's not just noise... They're geniuses, I tell you!" And with that, she shut off the engine, indicating that they had reached their destination. "Leave all your things here, we'll go to the apartment later. We just don't have enough time right now!"

Soon she was standing on the sidewalk, waiting for Bella to get out of the car. Bella had no choice other than to drag herself out of the vehicle and attempt to follow her friend, almost having to run to avoid being left behind by a small but very excited Alice. Because of her tiny size, it was almost comical to see her jump over and over that way... almost. Maybe if she wasn't making a show of herself, without an once of shame, in the middle of a densely populated street. So Bella had to deal with with a chattering, bouncing Alice the whole time they were in line, before they could show their tickets after a good half an hour of waiting, and get into the concert hall. She heard her friend swear when they realized they were at the end of the crowded room, quite far from the stage, behind everyone else already waiting there. She did not understand what Alice muttered, though she didn't have quite enough time to understand anything at all since her arm was suddenly grabbed and pulled forward, her body following the movement, losing balance almost to the tipping point.

"Sorry... Excuse me... Our friends are waiting for us over there... Sorry..." Bella almost believed her friend while they fought their way through the crowd, from the confidence emanating from her voice. Before she remembered that only the two of them were attending together, anyway.

"What do you think you're doing? You just can't go and shove through people like that! And I'm barely keeping myself upright!" Bella finally said after a few minutes of intense battling.

"It's hardly my fault that we were late..." Alice snarled. "And I was the one to make up lost time!" She resumed her pushing through the crowd, dragging Bella behind her once again. "We wouldn't even be able to see the concert from the back of this hall!"

Bella didn't even attempt to answer, preferring to focus on matching Alice's pace without falling, even if she had to recognize that because of the density of the crowd, she could have had her feet eight inches off the ground yet she would still be standing straight. If standing was even the word. After a time that seemed endless, her friend came to a stop, not because of the usual wall of flesh and hair, but a metal barrier. They were at the very front, slightly off-center to the left. Bella had to admit that thanks to Alice, they had quite a view of the stage, which she observed a few moments, while her friend was preparing her camera – the camera she had slipped (not to say hidden) in one of her many concealed pockets. Drums, microphones, many wires, a piano at the opposite end of the stage, and in the background an enormous black curtain bearing the name of the band. Relatively tasteful, Bella concluded.

She realized that the concert was coming to a start when the crowd moved closer, if that was even possible, and her guess was confirmed when the lights went out.

Alice couldn't help but squeal, "Here we go!"


End file.
